The Battle for Wesnoth: The Working Man's Strategy Game

[@MOWAuthor]

Me and a mate used to play this game for hours almost every day for years on end. I'd go to his house, take my laptop and we'd play via LAN multiplayer. At some point in the past, me and this guy had a falling out over his drug habbits. Recently, I decided to reach out and see how we was doing after years of not talking, and after catching up, we naturally fell to playing this together again. Literally only a couple of weeks ago.

[@yarghhargh9345]

did you kiss?

[@Robert-vk7je]

Leveling up veteran units during a campaign is such a cool feature. The units having names (except for undead) and lore makes it even cooler.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

In any strategy game I always get attached to my units if they persist between scenarios, I like that Wesnoth indulges this by letting you build up your own loyal crew of heroes over time.

[@SusCalvin]

Having a group of high-level units towards the end helps when some campaigns scale in difficulty. They usually give you a couple levelled characters.

[@иваншестаков-п8п]

Well.. I would bet that except... In the company where we start as a villager mage and gradually become a lich, there is the same spirit that I gave a name to, like most of my advanced undead. For example, I have a series of skeleton archers called "Old Friends," which I call an old friend. Or I call bloated carcasses jolly ones. I gave the ghosts the names of my characters from board games. This company is for me.. She's probably become one of the closest, and yes. A ghost that really cheers for his master, even if he's more of an asshole...

[@ClubbingSealCub]

This game is an incredible achievement. It's stayed free for 20 years and it keeps getting updated.

[@Ghostly_One1]

Only downside is, I >think< it no longer runs on OS' older than W10 unless you play an older version.

[@igorthelight]

@@Ghostly_One1 True! But Windows 10 is 10 years old at this point ;-)

[@FlyAwayTooHighToday]

@@Ghostly_One1 you can even play it on ios, i play it on my ipad

[@SuperRainbol]

In the 2000s I had a PC but the area where I lived didn't have internet, so to get games I had to buy Magazines that came with CDs full of games and in one of them I found a version of Wesnoth that was 90% translated to my native langue (only the end of long campaigns like the sand elves were not translated). So I played the hell of this shit, thousands of hours going through the campaigns over and over again. When I got Internet the first thing I did was looking up Wesnoth and you an imagine my happiness when I downloaded the new version and saw the it had new campaigns

[@giljoh6862]

The Screenfun CD? :D

[@alanssavkins1406]

Similar situation, I had a linux pc and no money, possibility (pc was very outdated and weak) or freedom to install anything on it and this just happened to be installed on the pc.

[@AskiFin]

Our DM used this game's map maker to build us a combat map in D&D, and he could change stuff real-time.. (It was D&D but more about warbands and combat rules from Kingmaker)

[@SK-lt1so]

Did someone say "Kingmaker"?

[@Victor-g]

Finally i found it, played it on my brother's pc 12 years ago, didn't knew it's name. Thank you for the video.

[@vinceb8123]

I swear the algorhythm can read my thoughts at this point. I LOVED this game, i remember one wave survival arena map i played online, getting to meet people from around the world, truly blessed times

[@LoneSnow-w3o]

I remember getting it on a CD with like 20 other games from some Magazine next to the ones for TV, will forever be one of my favorite childhood games, never becomes boring

[@RandomBrownLunchSack]

the huge collection of mods is the best part of this game, The Great Steppe Era is my favorite, very interesting factions and abilities

[@MeneltirFalmaro]

Wesnoth was THE game of my childhood. To Lands Unknown addon campaign is especially peak.

[@SusCalvin]

The terrain is as important as the day night cycle. Terrain determines how easy a unit is to hit. It's always good to stand in a castle or town. This could give units benefits in different terrain. The elves benefit a lot more from forest cover. Cavalry generally avoids forests, unless it's elf cav. Different units also move faster or slower on certain terrain. The human line infantry and cav is slowed by water and forests. The elves in particular have a few ambush units in forests. Units that are invisible as long as they stand in the right terrain and do not attack or bump into others. I remember that magic and some other attacks bypassed this, and had a constant hit chance. Magic could be used to dislodge units in heavy cover.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

This is also what makes some matchups very difficult, like rebels Vs Northerners for example because they favour very different terrain and on some maps it can make it very difficult to deal with.

[@SusCalvin]

@CairnEnjoyer Dwarfs used to have a hard time anywhere outside a mountain. But on a hill, they could hold out. I made an elf vs dwarf map decades ago where the two sides started in their perfect biome. Dwarfs inside a dense mountainous tunnel complex and the elfs in a sprawling forest. Both could easily defend but not reach out.

[@SusCalvin]

A detail about the tier 1 necromancer mages, the dark adepts. They are also weak chaff. Unless the campaign gives you a higher level necromancer or allows you to recruit higher levels, you will need to slowly let them build up. This is mostly true for all mages, they can be incredibly weak at lower levels and need to be protected as they chase down xp.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

Mages, especially Dark Adepts are like glass cannons at low level, they can be very deadly especially in the right matchup verses a vulnerable unit, but die very fast if attacked.

[@SusCalvin]

@@CairnEnjoyer I think magic had a trait that let it bypass terrain cover. Like a reasonably high lowest guaranteed chance to hit.

[@Gorbag100]

@@SusCalvin magic attacks have a fixed 70% hit chance, so they are quite good at dealing with high-cover units

[@CairnEnjoyer]

In a follow up vid I made after this, I make use of that quite a bit to deal with some sticky lv3 units I otherwise can’t hit

[@zachseeman5235]

I played Wesnoth extensively in 2010, I didn't know it was something beyond an aged Linux game.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

It’s still being continuously developed and has an active community

[@awordabout...3061]

I loved this as a kid between around 2008-2010 when I couldn't afford a proper computer and was struggling along with Linux - this was the only thing I could run, so I played it into the ground. Revisited it recently, and the campaigns really suffer from being TOO long and RNG just kills you every time so there's a lot of savescumming, but it's good fun and I wish I'd been able to get into the MP scene when it still existed.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

The best part of this game imo is the massive amount of community content, I mostly play the campaigns pretty casually and but I usually just try to restart the specific scenario if I’m in a really bad spot rather than rollback one turn. They have made some RNG/AI changes over the years to have more “fair” options, however it does have that Xcom feeling sometimes where you miss an easy shot again and again.

[@highadmiralbittenfield9689]

I have had this game for years. I could never believe it was a free game. Its so well fleshed out.

[@DeLeonHD]

Holy crap I was thinking about this game just a couple weeks ago as a game I played for HOURS after high-school every day while I waited for my extracurriculars, or when my car was at the shop and I'd have to wait for my mom to pick me up. I loved it so much. Thank you for making a video on it!

[@danentakoto2701]

I was introduced to this game back in 2008 by an IT friend of my dad's.

[@Ramash440]

We have Berwick Saga at home. Berwick Saga at home: Looks pretty sick though, I might give it a try.

[@Dunleap]

I use to have it on USB stick, and play it at work in a background. Great Game

[@SusCalvin]

There is a number of campaigns that try to really push the RPG elements. With dialogue, more choices. There is a few fun campaigns where you start from the bottom, and all you can recruit is wave upon wave of peasants.

[@seepsoda]

one of my favorite games growing up

[@calanjameshunt]

I loved this game in the day… much recommend to anyone unsure

[@alanssavkins1406]

My favourite game. I strongly recommend also covering Strange legacy trader mod, as it completely remakes the game into a different game

[@superresistant0]

I would never guess this is Battle for Wesnoth. The look is totally different from what I remember.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

If’s changed a lot. Until recently, I’d not really played it in maybe a decade.

[@vhms123]

Man I love this game so much, it was such a great part of my childhood. Though I don't play it as much anymore, I still read every patch notes coming and recommend the game to all of my strategy gamer friends

[@Elsneakakaze]

Ive never heard of this game, and that angers me greatly, im downloading it right now!

[@Abuqital2000]

Please do and download the mods you won't regret it.

[@Tanandrum]

Oh my, only now does KZbin recommend me a video about one of my favorite games ever? Finally.

[@CantusTropus]

WESNOTH CHADS ARISE

[@BakhtawarGupta6529]

I would prefer 'Assemble' General, 'Rise' is associated with the undead 🧟‍♂️💀🦴. Loyalists for life ⚔️🛡.

[@alanssavkins1406]

You should use the daylight advantage, so at dawn you should already be set up to attack, as well as pay attention to terrain bonuses and damage types (these 2 are also important mechanics of the game), as well as pay attention to the range of the units and move so that you are out of enemy range and they are forced to close the distance so you can attack first, as well as that they are forced to move into unadvantageous terrain and also pay attention so that you are not in an unadvantageous terrain, as well as pay attention to traits, and recall only experienced units or units with good traits (i.e. fast horseman, or a unit with loyal trait, since they require no upkeep), as well as try using planning mode

[@rainbowcrash6990]

Just added this to my list of “games to be played” 👍 admittedly there are a lot of unplayed games on there, but this looks very cool!

[@thecentralscrutinizerk]

This, Warzone 2100 and Widelands on Knoppix Linux at 8 or 9 years old shaped me irreversibly.

[@JRefumee]

An additional point about Heavy Infantery is, they can get fearless :) Sadly you werent lucky with their traits. It is interesting that indoor time zone is benefiting chaotic units, normally it should only benefit liminal units. Okay, I checked out the scenario file. This indoor castle is different to default wesnoth.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

This castle was an *evil* castle lol

[@henrymapleton]

What if Sega continued and expanded Dark Wizard from the Sega CD. Wesnoth is an amazing title and the mod support and custom factions makes this game something you can play forever like Warcraft 3. Always liked how you can toggle mods into custom open rogue-like campaigns and clicking the randomizer units is fun way to play.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

I’ve been playing one of the multiplayer RPG scenarios today, it feels like a light D&D campaign

[@TheJBerg]

Dude, I have been playing this game off and on since it came out as a beta. My roommate turned me onto it, and have had it on every computer I've ever owned at one point or another.

[@campbelld.1426]

Love Wesnoth, been installed on every computer I've owned for the last 2 decades. There's also a decent mobile port as well

[@plootploot8621]

This game is so good, i was 10y and my father give this game to me, everyday i was there in my room, playing, 7am to 23pm. Awesome!!

[@articartisttest6140]

Love the editor and create your own campains.

[@jacethomas5562]

I LOVE THIS GAME! I still cant decide what faction is my favorite so i random into 2v2s with cpus on whatever maps look fun Always making the enemies poopy brown of course

[@CairnEnjoyer]

I tend to prefer very mobile factions like Rebels, but I’m a big Elf lover. Been trying out Dunefolk recently as well, might make a follow-up video soon playing some online matches as them.

[@nightember4706]

I loved playing this game.

[@ColdFireEax]

God, i spent many hundreds of hours playing this masterpiece, with all the wonderful user generated campaigns. I have a copy of the old version along with the steam one on every pc and lso the mobile version.

[@thecatwraith1412]

One addition to this game which would be really cool would be that if your units level up after level 3, the become loyal. It would cost more exp just to be balanced

[@johndoe-rq1pu]

I love Wesnoth so much, but I do sort of hate the inherent metagame of "level all your characters up and then stop using them so you don't 'waste' experience and lock yourself out of winning the campaign." But that's probably a me problem. I wish there were more mods like LotI that incentivized high level characters.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

This is why I prefer skirmish matches over multi-scenario campaigns usually.

[@Aleksandar_the_Great94]

Love this game so much! An incredible project

[@TraxOferta]

Always good to see Wesnoth get attention, love the game, even if I play less of it than I'd like to If I have one problem with wesnoth aside from RNG (Which is a problem with RNG in general due to XCOM), is the fact that no ranged units can attack from, you know, RANGE, and instead they have to be in what is essentially melee contact with enemies, always weird and annoys me a ton.

[@MateuszGUN123]

When recruiting you can hover your mouse over the spot where you want your unit to spawn. Would be helpful with the situations like with the boat in the last skirmish.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

@@MateuszGUN123 didn’t know that since in the default era it usually doesn’t matter that much.

[@kogamei]

a classic, Undead are absolutely broken once you get enough zombies going. fun stuff.

[@Markus-w8m]

back in the days it felt like this was the only real game for mac.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

LinuxChuds and MacChads together in the NoGames alliance

[@JanJansen985]

I remember being laughed at when people were talking Fire Emblem and i said it was like Wesnoth

[@CairnEnjoyer]

Probably an apt comparison, that or FF Tactics

[@JanJansen985]

@CairnEnjoyer all them boys making those free games They the real ones

[@JRefumee]

Really liking your thumbnails

[@BunnyHoppin-]

I would have loved this when it was new. Suprised I never heard of it with all the searching I did. I think age of wonders has more variety going on but I like this game's potential for quick pvp matches.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

Well it’s always being developed as it’s open source so there is constantly new content

[@JRefumee]

Good Video. I like seeing youtube videos about wesnoth. One note about liminal, in the newest version liminal don't have drawbacks. It only gives +25% between night and day and otherway around.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

Yes this was my mistake based on old version, in a more recent video I mentioned that Liminal units just behave as neutral ones aside from a dawn-dusk boost

[@JRefumee]

@@CairnEnjoyer Oh there is another one? I'll watch that too of course :)

[@apollogaming7439]

This game was incredible

[@jmann3790]

I felt personally attacked in those first 3 sentences lol😂

[@Mantelar]

This is the best game of its kind, frankly. And it’s free.

[@Matthew-cc4xt]

Wesnoth was so promising, but it's just so RNG dependent that you either have to save scum like crazy or else likely have a bunch of units that you spent a ton of time raising to 2nd and 3rd class change die because of dumb luck. I think it's a game dev lesson that you rarely want to both have someone build up an RPG character and allow it to just be perma-killed, especially when RNG is so core to the game.

[@hurricanefist]

awesome. i was going to ask if you played this after your widelands video.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

I’ve been meaning to make a video on it for a while and this month I’ve been doing all Opensource games anyway

[@BalaamsAss]

This is such a great game, and free too! It reminds me a lot of Shining Force for the Sega Genesis, but with a deeper campaign. I tried the port to mobile several years back, and it just wasn't a good one, but maybe it changed since then. However, anyone wanting a great free game for linux and windows, definitely give this a try!

[@tanphamnhat969]

Not really good at playing this game but I agree that this game has a lot of depths in it. I like its gameplay and even better at its story too.

[@weylinstoeppelmann9858]

I think the biggest mistake the AI made in that last game was mucking around in the water with half of its units trying to attack that ship

[@CairnEnjoyer]

The AI is normally pretty competent, but with some of these addon factions/scenarios it can get confused. the 17th century cannon galleon is not equivalent to a merman you'd normally encounter in the base game.

[@Ostvalt]

Never tried the multiplayer. I could be interesting to see how it is. I have been more active on Advance Wars by web scene, so interested how the meta is in Wesnoth.

[@thuglifebear5256]

Pick dwarves and never recruit the dwarves. You can win by spamming the cheap little shits and grabbing undefended villages/exposed units.

[@Svensky]

this game remind me warlords turn based dos game

[@InfiniteGatsu]

will you review nemesis of the roman empire?

[@Abuqital2000]

Love this game , there are so so many scenarios and campaigns to play.

[@lmelior]

Man I have a huge soft spot for this game, and it always lasts until RNGsus betrays me and I lose a high level unit because he missed four 70% attacks in a row. 😅😅 I recall being so annoyed about one instance of this a very long time ago that I modified the code so that every unit did variable damage, using the terrain modifier to reduce the base damage and then used a little RNG to adjust it up or down. 😂 Compiling the code back then was an adventure all on its own. I remember submitting a small patch to add or remove some obscure compiler switch (can't remember which), though sadly it was rejected. I just did some googling and I was hanging out on the wesnoth forums 16 years ago!

[@mardaumlauf7749]

And Sand future elves fraction I forgot the name and same time world Chaos humans fraction(mostly there were hints or just a fan version) And Monsters.

[@maxlee1423]

I had lots of fun with this game, but the more difficult campaigns become a slog due to accuracy RNG. Also ranged units aren't very ranged, I was hoping for something like in Civ5+ games where you would put archers behind your swordsmen to shoot over them.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

I mean in earlier Civ games as well you had to bring “ranged” units up close as well. I think it’s not that bad, it’s just another damage type to consider and counter melee focused unit. I prefer skirmishes honestly to long campaigns, mostly because I enjoy the faster tactical gameplay.

[@SusCalvin]

The AI is not as good at large formations. It tends to send out units piecemeal, as they are recruited. And as shown, units are at risk when they are singled out.

[@GreySectoid]

This game is an open-source classic!

[@vagrant2863]

Fun game but I hate how accuracy works in it

[@CairnEnjoyer]

It’s very terrain dependant, being in a “fort” tile for example while your opponent is on a plains tile gives you a huge advantage in accuracy

[@SusCalvin]

I imagined it as cover. A unit in a forest or a town is more protected than one in an open field. Then they could make units work different depending on biome, combined with how many movement points they got. Sending spearmen out into a pond to fight mermen got gnarly. Some heavy units were always easy to hit, but made up for it with high armour.

[@skoub3466]

The game doesn't look like the way when I try it

[@CairnEnjoyer]

Did you download the latest version? Should be 1.18

[@skoub3466]

@CairnEnjoyer I believe it was 0.8 something

[@Daimo83]

Needs a Panzer mod

[@CairnEnjoyer]

There is a WWII conversion addon

[@greensoldier2142]

This is the Fantasy fan's Panzer General lol

[@CairnEnjoyer]

@@greensoldier2142 I was actually looking for this game recently, would love to see a modernization of it.

[@greensoldier2142]

@CairnEnjoyer Panzer Corps 1 and 2 are spiritual successors to it. There's also Order of Battle but it deviates a bit

[@Raidenze]

Did they make accuracy better? It's the one thing that is a deal-breaker for me.

[@CairnEnjoyer]

I’ve been playing a lot recently and I haven’t found it to be that bad, I do know they have alternate RNG settings you can choose but I’ve just been using default.

[@Raidenze]

​@@CairnEnjoyer I remember playing a campaign map where I have to push my units through before I get overwhelmed by undead. I had like 4 units attacking one unit for like 2 turns... and it was still alive because most of them missed. Since then I was like screw this I am not playing a game where RNGesus can wreck me like that.

[@blackleon1708]

Its not that deep, its just a wargame with transparent rules. Its actually one of better parts of this game, its pretty easy to understand.

[@SusCalvin]

A lot of wargames are simple. I like that it does more with less instead of loading it with too many special abilities and synergies.

[@blackleon1708]

@@SusCalvin yea, I think it's a good thing too

[@CairnEnjoyer]

Tactically rich might be a better phrase

[@jacethomas5562]

Yes it's so amazing! We need more easy to understand games that can be played forever!

[@vinceb8123]

We call it "easy to understand, hard to master". With your point, chess is not that deep as well 😂

[@Turned2Ice]

rng is a big no for me in the game

[@lordterra1377]

Whats the point of castle walls if your units can just walk right through them? Seems like a decent game just too simple and some bad game design choices .

[@jamaro2006]

Just like in real life, walls do nothing if they aren't manned. You can just climb over walls if there isn't somebody ready to stab you at the top

[@CairnEnjoyer]

All terrain tiles, including walls, have different defence values, a unit in a fortress wall tile has quite high defence and is able to control the area around it due to the Zone of Control all units except skirmishers possess. Soon I'll share an online game I played recently as Rebels where I make heavy use of terrain features to control the map.

[@kacpadestro8086]

>easten european >Poland

[@RandomBrownLunchSack]

poland is literally one of the most eastern country in europe

[@constable117]

Poland cannot, in fact, into Western Europe

[@kacpadestro8086]

Last time i checked on map ITS LITERATLY IN THE MIDDLE OF EUROPE

[@RandomBrownLunchSack]

@@kacpadestro8086 that's germany, poland is literally the edge of europe

[@kacpadestro8086]

@@RandomBrownLunchSack yours map is broken

[@Abuqital2000]

It's also available on mobile.